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Learning how to create interesting guitar solos is the thing that separates good guitarists from truly memorable ones. Most intermediate players hit a wall at some point: their scales are clean, their technique is solid, their tone is good, and yet their solos still sound like scale exercises. According to renowned musician and former Megadeth lead guitarist Marty Friedman, the breakthrough comes from how you use the notes you already know. In the lesson featured below, Marty walks through the core philosophy behind his unmistakable soloing voice and shows exactly how to put it to work in your own playing.

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Marty Friedman Guitar Lesson: How to Create Interesting Guitar Solos

Marty’s lesson cuts straight to what most intermediate guitarists wish someone had told them years ago: the notes you play matter less than what you decide to do with them. Watch the lesson first, then read on for a complete breakdown of every concept Marty walks through.

Musical Lines vs Scales Guitar: The Core Insight

The central insight Marty unpacks is the distinction between scales and lines. A scale is a sequence of notes in a group. A line is something you’ve thought about, shaped, and crafted to say something specific. Running a scale up and down sounds like a computer. Building a line out of those same notes (while venturing in and out of the scale shape) sounds like a musician.

Most intermediate guitarists spend years drilling scales without ever making the jump to lines. Marty’s message is that now is the time to make that jump.

Exotic Scales Guitar: Marty’s Real Approach

While Marty’s playing is often described as built on “exotic scales,” he’s the first to push back on that framing. Yes, certain scales lean toward particular cultural sounds. The Japanese-sounding scale he demonstrates in D minor, for example, has a recognizable character. But running that scale up and down won’t make you sound like Marty Friedman. The “exotic” flavor lives in the lines you build around those notes.

That distinction matters because it changes how you practice. Instead of memorizing more scales hoping that one will unlock the Marty Friedman sound, you focus on what to do with the scales you already know. The transformation lives in the architecture you build with familiar raw material.

Outside Notes: Where the Gold Lies

One of the most useful concepts in Marty’s lesson is the deliberate use of “outside notes.” These are the notes that don’t strictly belong to the scale you’re playing. They feel like they shouldn’t work, and yet somehow they do. When you stop on those notes briefly, you create tension that resolves into a satisfying release when you return to scale tones.

Marty’s advice on outside notes is to stop on some of the notes you might think don’t belong. That’s where the gold lies. Players who only ever land on scale tones produce predictable solos. Players who deliberately use outside notes produce solos that surprise the listener, draw the ear in, and create the kind of moments that stick in memory.

How to Develop Your Own Guitar Style

Learning how to develop your own guitar style is the deeper skill underneath the lines-vs-scales discussion. Marty’s argument is that style emerges when you listen as you play and make conscious choices about what you like in your own playing.

While that may sound simple, it’s the hardest part of the work. Most guitarists let other players’ preferences shape their own playing without realizing it. Breaking that pattern requires deliberate attention. Listen to yourself. Decide what works for you. Cultivate the lines and phrases that feel like your voice. Over months and years, those choices add up to a recognizable musical identity.

For a deeper look at the closely-related problem of breaking out of imitation, check out this blog post with Marty on how to stop copying guitar licks walks through his perspective in detail.

Guitar Phrasing Techniques That Make a Solo Land

Guitar phrasing techniques are what turn raw note choices into musical statements. A few that Marty’s approach emphasizes:

  • Start inside, venture outside. Begin a phrase with a familiar scale shape so the ear can lock in, then move to notes outside the scale that create tension before resolving back home.
  • Stop on notes deliberately. Don’t just blow past a note. Let it ring. Use the duration of the note to make it land emotionally.
  • Build small motifs. Take a tiny phrase and develop it. A small idea developed thoughtfully outperforms a complex idea played once.
  • Listen as you play. Hear what just came out of the instrument. React to it. Let what worked influence what comes next.
  • Respect the silence. Space between phrases is part of the phrase. Let the listener catch up. Make your next idea land harder by leaving room for it.

Applying Marty’s Approach in Different Keys

One of the more subtle points in Marty’s lesson is that the same conceptual approach works in any key. He demonstrates the same melodic idea in D, then in A, then in B-flat. The actual notes change. The thinking doesn’t.

This is part of what separates a deep concept from a memorized lick. A lick lives in one key and one position. A concept lives in your ears and your mind, ready to be applied wherever the music takes you. Marty’s encouragement: take whatever you learn from him (or anyone) and try it in a different key than the one it was taught in. The exercise builds your ear, your fretboard knowledge, and your sense of what works musically.

Get Marty’s Full Approach: The Art of Soloing Bundle

Everything in this lesson is part of Marty’s broader teaching philosophy, which lives in depth across his Art of Soloing course bundle on TrueFire. The bundle walks through every concept Marty uses to build solos that sound unmistakably like him: lines vs scales, outside notes, motivic development, exotic harmonic colors, phrasing strategies, and the entire creative process that shapes his playing.

For a limited time, the Marty Friedman All Access bundle is available for $99. The bundle includes:

  • One full year of TrueFire All Access. Unlimited access to the entire TrueFire catalog of thousands of lessons across every style and skill level for a full year.
  • Lifetime access to the Art of Soloing course bundle. Fresh Concepts, Marty-fied Tools, and Creativity Development are yours to keep for life. The courses stay in your library permanently for you to revisit and re-study whenever you want.

Start Building Interesting Solos Today

Learning how to create interesting guitar solos is one of the great long projects of any serious guitarist’s life. Marty’s philosophy gives you a practical framework to start on it today: think in lines instead of scales, use outside notes deliberately, listen carefully to what comes out of the instrument, and let your own preferences shape your playing. The technical chops you already have are enough to begin. The deeper work is creative.

Get the Marty Friedman All Access bundle for just $99. One year of TrueFire All Access plus lifetime, keep-forever access to the Art of Soloing course bundle. It’s the most direct path into the Marty Friedman approach to guitar, and the most affordable way to get a year of the entire TrueFire catalog at the same time.